Two Beginnings and an End

Okay, let’s start with the good stuff, but know that the sad part is coming.

Spark and Fire are now live on Audible! Woo Hoo! They should also be appearing on Amazon and iTunes, so have a listen.

Here’s what’s really cool: I have 50 promo codes to give away. They should allow you to listen FOR FREE and then, of course, write a glowing review. Reply/comment below and I’ll get you one (while supplies last, not valid in any other solar system, results may vary, etc.)

I’m happy with the narrator, Tyler Cristos. He was great about corrections and always got them turned around promptly.

Now the sad.

Kindle Vella is pulling the plug. On everything. The site will go dark in February and they will stop accepting new episodes next month. In their own words, the site never really took off. I had hoped it would grow, but every time I checked, it seemed to be more erotica focused than anything. (30% of you just went to Vella for the first time.) I’m going to pull Ash sooner, next month, in fact. Not nearly enough views, and the story has evolved quite a bit. My apologies to those of you that were reading there. Leave a comment for me on Vella and I’ll make sure you get a free copy of the new book when it comes out. Offer expires when Vella goes dark.

Okay, to leave things on an upbeat note, I’m about twenty pages from finishing the first draft of Book 3. I’m thinking about changing the title to Embers, so as not to conflate it with unfinished, orphaned copies of Ash that may linger in cyberspace until the sun cools and the internet dies. Thoughts?

Are we doomed? At the Indie Book Fair a couple of weeks ago, a woman came by with four teenage boys in tow. We had a nice conversation. All four teens were heads down on phones the size of a pair of Air Jordans. She made one of them stop playing the game that had them enraptured. He broke contact with the game only long enough to read the back cover of Spark and nod. She bought it. I signed it, and she departed with three teens in tow. 

One was so engrossed in his game that he didn’t notice that the herd had moved on. Curious, I started a timer. At two minutes and eleven seconds, he raised his head and looked around. His face took on the look of a meerkat 0.001 seconds prior to being snatched up by an eagle. He looked left and right and set off, panicked, in the wrong direction. I whistled him back and pointed in the other direction. Phones may be counter evolutionary.

Speaking of evolution, my buddy, Remo, urged me (again) to read Darwin’s Black Box. When a friend that good recommends a book twice, you read it. I’m about halfway through and it’s phenomenal.

Sorry to see Vella go, but ecstatic to have Spark and Fire available as audiobooks.